▎ 摘　　要

In the work presented here, a facile approach for the preparation of nitrogen-doped porous graphene was applied for the first time using ammonium acetate as a nitrogen rich precursor via pyrolysis at 900 degrees C for 2 h. The physicochemical properties of the prepared samples were determined using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The prepared samples were further applied for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline solution, and the electrochemical performance was investigated and compared with porous graphene and Pt/C 20 wt.%. The results revealed that introducing nitrogen to the graphene structure leads to improvement in catalytic activity, enhanced catalytic current as well as more positive potential. Furthermore, N-doped graphene prepared using ammonium acetate exhibited excellent methanol tolerance and long-term stability. Finally, it was shown that the optimal pyrolysis temperature was obtained at 900 degrees C. Therefore, it is concluded that ammonium acetate could be used as an effective precursor for the ORR. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.